The Democracy Research Institute is responding to the clashes at the rally held outside the central office of the Georgian Dream on December 2 and believes that the Government is responsible for the violent confrontation erupted between the demonstrators and counter demonstrators, as well as for encouraging polarized and radical sentiments in the public.

Clashes between the demonstrators and counter demonstrators:

On December 2, at about 07:00 pm, the Change and Shame youth movements were met by the supporters of the ruling party at the central office of the Georgian Dream. Members of the youth movements were protesting against the detention of members of the Shame movement in the city of Mtskheta in the first half of the day. The situation escalated after demonstrators began posting posters on the building of the Georgian Dream office, which angered the ruling party supporters.

According to open sources, the counter demonstrators were particularly aggressive towards the demonstrators. Reporters recorded numerous cases of violence and physical assault on the demonstrators (leaving 5 activists injured). One of the demonstrators sustained an eye injury after the counter demonstrators fired pyrotechnics.

Police failed to ensure safety of the demonstrators

Police have not arrested any counter-demonstrator, despite various footage confirming that the counter-demonstrators had assaulted the demonstrators. The Ministry of Internal Affairs said later that the investigation into the clashes outside the central office of the Georgian Dream had been launched under Article 126 of the Criminal Code.

Pursuant to the Law of Georgia on Police, the police are responsible "for ensuring the safety of the participants of rallies, demonstrations and other mass events", which implies the obligation of the police to protect peaceful demonstrators from the violent actions of counter-demonstrators or other persons, including by physically separating the opposing parties from each other and eliminating violence.

Despite the above, various media footage clearly show that police did not prevent the aggressive counter-demonstrators from approaching the demonstrators and thus failed to ensure the safety of peaceful demonstrators.

Evaluation of the events

The Democracy Research Institute has observed the recent practice of removing the affected party from the scene of the incident during confrontation between demonstrators and counter-demonstrators, instead of taking effective measures to prevent violence, which creates the sense of impunity among violent groups and encourages future violence.

The findings of the Democracy Research Institute also show that, in case of good will, the police have enough resources to keep order, protect the right to assembly and expression, and prevent offences.

Recommendations

In view of the above, the Democracy Research Institute calls on the ruling political team to:

• Take effective steps to de-escalate the situation
• Refrain from any action that may provoke violence

The ruling and opposition parties to:

• Show particular responsibility when evaluating the ongoing developments, as their actions may be directly perceived as a call for violence

The law enforcement agencies to:

• Investigate the abuse of demonstrators outside the Georgian Dream office objectively and in the shortest possible time and to report the results of the investigation to the public
• In order to prevent violence at the demonstrations and counter demonstrations held by the opposing parties, ensure that police separate the opposing parties from each other, prevent violence and protect the safety of demonstrator